"Failed to load ApplicationContext" exception when trying to run JUnit Spring test

[Dave Alvarado]

Hi,

I have a Maven (v 3.0.3) project using Spring 3.0.5.RELEASE. I want to write a mock Spring JUnit test to verify that one of my controllers is redirecting to the proper view. However, I can't get my application context to load properly. I have these files ...

    src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/web.xml
    src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/dispatcher-servlet.xml

Then in my Spring JUnit test, I have

    @RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
    @ContextConfiguration({"classpath:web.xml",
        "classpath:dispatcher-servlet.xml"})
    public class RegistrationControllerTest {

However, upon running my JUnit test from Maven, I get the error

    Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: IOException parsing XML document from class path resource [web.xml]; nested exception is java.io.FileNotFoundException: class path resource [web.xml] cannot be opened because it does not exist
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:341)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:302)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:143)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:178)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:149)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:212)
        at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractGenericContextLoader.loadContext(AbstractGenericContextLoader.java:81)
        at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractGenericContextLoader.loadContext(AbstractGenericContextLoader.java:1)
        at org.springframework.test.context.TestContext.loadApplicationContext(TestContext.java:280)
        at org.springframework.test.context.TestContext.getApplicationContext(TestContext.java:304)
        ... 30 more
    Caused by: java.io.FileNotFoundException: class path resource [web.xml] cannot be opened because it does not exist
        at org.springframework.core.io.ClassPathResource.getInputStream(ClassPathResource.java:158)
        at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:328)
        ... 39 more

What is the proper way to reference my web.xml file? Thanks, - Dave

[Mark Spritzler]

You don't reference the web.xml. The web.xml file is not a Spring configuration file.

If you want to Unit Test your controller, you don't need to have Spring started up in your test. But you might have to stub or mock out any Web specific classes with something like HttpMock.

Your Controller should be a pojo, so you don't need a true web environment in your tests.

Also, those two files that are in WEB-INF. Well that isn't in your classpath. And you are trying to load them with classpath. However, you can't use http: either, since your tests will not be running in a Web Environment. So you will need to have a different config file in your test directory that is in your classpath.

Hope that helps.

Mark

[Dave Alvarado]

The solution that ended up working for me was

@RunWith(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.class)
@ContextConfiguration({ "file:src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/dispatcher-servlet.xml" })
public class RegistrationControllerTest {

	@Autowired
	private ApplicationContext applicationContext;

	private MockHttpServletRequest request;
	private MockHttpServletResponse response;
	private HandlerAdapter handlerAdapter;
	private RegistrationController controller;

	@Before
	public void setUp() {
		request = new MockHttpServletRequest();
		response = new MockHttpServletResponse();
		handlerAdapter = applicationContext.getBean(HandlerAdapter.class);
		// I could get the controller from the context here
		controller = new RegistrationController();
	}

	@Test
	public void testShowRegistrationForm() throws Exception {
		request.setRequestURI("/user/registrationform.jsp");
		request.setMethod("GET");
		final ModelAndView mav = handlerAdapter.handle(request, response, controller);
		assertViewName(mav, "user/registrationform");
		// assertAndReturnModelAttributeOfType(mav, "image", Image.class);
	}

}

Code on, - Dave

[Mark Spritzler]

Yep that works.

Make sure you don't move the file to a different directory or that will then start failing again. ;)

You could also create another config file that you keep in the same package as your test class that is loaded only by your test class.

Mark